


Loose Ends

by tieria



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-17
Updated: 2015-09-17
Packaged: 2018-04-21 04:41:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4815443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tieria/pseuds/tieria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The second Shun learns the truth, Dennis thinks, adjusting his riding suit, is the moment their fragile balance cracks and shatters.<br/>Shun and Dennis get their rematch. The aftermath isn't quite as clean a break as either of them would have liked.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Kinda loosely follows the timeline of my last ShunDen fic, but really all you need to know is Dennis enjoys playing with Shun’s emotions, Shun is infuriated by just about everything Dennis does but ends up kissing him anyway, and it’s all a mess just waiting to fall apart. (Also, Yuuri.)  
> Very slight spoilers for the newest batch of arc v spoilers, but not anything major or concrete. Mostly a hype fic.  
> (Also, the Dennis/Yuuri is only in chapter two, Dennis' epilogue.)

It’s not a relationship meant to last. It’s not fit to be called a relationship in the first place, really, more barbed words and the bared fangs of the beast pacified by thin layers of ‘love’ and ‘understanding’.

The second Shun learns the truth, Dennis thinks, adjusting his riding suit, is the moment their fragile balance cracks and shatters. If Dennis has his way then there’d be a fair amount of duels between them yet, but Dennis isn’t so overconfident that he’d believe Shun wouldn’t sink his talons deep and drag the truth out of him at any cost.

He heads over to his D-Wheel, absently checking the functions- all set to autopilot, as to be expected. His Fusion monsters sit heavy in his extra deck, lying in wait for the chase to begin, and Dennis wonders if this is the day he finally sets them free. He slips an extra Fusion card – a good luck charm, of sorts- into his main deck while Shun isn’t looking, instead sharing a tense conversation with one of the attendants off to the side. The nervous attendant backs off quickly, and Dennis is quick to call Shun’s attention back to him.

“I don’t plan on losing here, Kurosaki,” Dennis says with a smile.

Shun replies with his usual single-minded determination, hard around the edges but not entirely unfriendly. “Don’t think I’m going to let you win.”

Anticipation runs through their veins now, and he can see Shun’s lips twitch faintly into a smile. It’s their rematch, a conclusion to a duel whose verdict is long overdue, and frankly, Dennis would have been disappointed with anything else but Shun’s best.

Dennis considers asking for a good luck kiss, mostly to see how much he could rile Shun up before the duel even began, partially to see if Shun would indulge him after the kiss in the prison.

The words are halfway to his lips before he decides against it. It’s one thing to tease, another thing entirely to make a definite move, and Dennis is uneasy to find he isn’t sure how he’ll feel about the end result. He settles for a jab at Shun’s summons that he won’t remember later, and watching Shun get defensive is almost as satisfying.

:::

The duel is fierce, and monsters vanish to the grave almost as soon as they’re summoned as Shun and Dennis chip away at each other’s life points to the roaring applause of the crowd. They round a corner and hit the straightaway halfway through Shun’s turn. Dennis pulls ahead, feeling Shun’s suspicious glare burn into his back all the while.

He’s usually better about masking his dueling style- he wouldn’t have been able to climb to his current status within Academia’s ranks if he couldn’t hide the cruelty waiting to sink claws into flesh- but something about Shun draws it out of him. Maybe it’s because he’s XYZ, the last of a dying breed, or maybe it’s simply because Dennis enjoys riling him up- but either way.

Shun puts on speed, pulls up to his side and stays there.

”What, did you miss me?” Dennis teases, but Shun remains silent for a moment longer. Dennis watches him as he stares ahead into the middle distance with the distinct, hollow sense that something is ending.

When Shun speaks, it’s with that uncharacteristic hesitance lingering just beneath the surface of his words. A question that he has to ask, an answer that part of him would rather not know. “You aren’t from LDS.”

Dennis sighs, shrugs exaggeratedly with one shoulder. “We’ve been over this already, Kurosaki. I’m LDS. With a little more practical experience, maybe, but still LDS.”

A long pause, as if Shun’s remembering something, hearing words from ghosts of people he hasn’t seen in months. He turns his head to meet Dennis’ gaze straight on, eyes harsh and unwavering, like they had been at their first meeting all the way back in Standard. Then- “I don’t believe you.”

With that, Shun sets a few cards and ends his turn, ignoring Dennis’ next protests entirely.

Dennis pulls ahead again. The show must go on, after all, and he says as much with an easygoing expression still plastered to his face like the ill-fitting mask it’s quickly becoming. The curtain, Dennis thinks, just might fall on his act a bit earlier than he had intended it to.

:::

Everything hinges on his next draw. He’s well aware that Shun has backed him into a corner with only one escape- but there’s luck in that card, and he knows it’s in his hand before he even has to look.

He turns back slightly to shoot Shun a sweet smile and a smug glance. “Watch carefully, Kurosaki!”

It’s a shame to waste all his hard work, getting the Lancers to trust him- all the acting, returning the captured Princess when stealing her away would’ve earned him that much more favor with Academia…

But if there’s one thing he hasn’t lied about, it’s the desire to appease his entertainer’s blood. He plays up his next move for everything it’s worth, feels Shun’s gaze grow colder and colder at his back. Shun already knows, but his pride won’t let him admit it, won’t let him acknowledge he’s made the mistake of ignoring his suspicions just a little too long.

A switch flips the second “Fusion” passes from Dennis’s lips. The Shun riding with him is no longer the suspicious but selfish Shun of the prison, no longer the suspicious but oddly fond Shun of their kiss. They’re no longer dueling for a spot in the next round of the Friendship Cup, but fighting a war on a field that’s yet to see its first blood.

And, Dennis thinks as his attack sends Shun’s D-Wheel spinning wildly, nearly flinging him off with the force of the impact as the Synchro crowd cheers once more- they’ve never had a better audience.

He’s raised the stakes, and there’s nothing but bloodlust between them now. The hunter and the hunted chasing each other across the stage, roles still unclear. If he loses, he’s got a long future as a card ahead of him- that is, if Shun doesn’t decide to rip his card to shreds on the spot.

Shun is riding beside him again in an instant, ramming his D-Wheel hard into Dennis’ and throwing them both off balance. Dennis spares a moment of honest surprise that the impact doesn’t send them both to the ground.

“Vicious, Kurosaki,” he says, flashing him a wink and a smile tinged black with malice. “I can see where your sister gets it from.”

Shun stops short of hitting him again, but the motion brings him in close. Dennis can see the emotions flicker across his face- rage, pain, betrayal- as his word cut like a knife through Shun’s abdomen. When he speaks, his voice is low and conveying to Dennis the focus of a hunter the moment before the kill. “What did you do to Ruri?”

Dennis hums, pretending to think. “Nothing.”

Shun snarls. “Stop lying.”

It isn’t a lie. Dennis had only been in Heartland briefly to watch Yuuri, to step in as damage control if necessary. “If anything,” he says, “you should be glad I was there. We had to capture her alive, after all, and Yuuri does have the tendency to be… impulsive. Especially when they put up a fight.”

Shun crashes wordlessly into his side again, throwing his D-Wheel off balance and sending him wavering wildly. Dennis struggles to regain control even with the auto-pilot. He can vaguely hear the MC yelling, though whether she’s chiding or condoning their behavior, Dennis couldn’t care less. The world has narrowed down to just the two of them, the feel of the wind rushing past, and the tangle of emotion between them as Shun draws and they head into the last turn.

:::

One second there’s an impact, the next he’s weightless in the air, more hearing than seeing the crash of his D-Wheel into the barrier, the crunch and snap of his left arm as he hits the pavement hard. The sound of Shun’s D-Wheel as he pulls to an abrupt halt beside him, his footsteps as he walks closer, towering over Dennis with intent written clear across his posture. Dennis braces himself, clutching at his broken arm- but nothing comes.

“What, Kurosaki, lost your nerve for war?”

“Someone talked me out of it,” Shun replies, staring down with disdain painted across his face and the tiniest hint of regret flickering in his eyes. Regret for not carding him, most likely, regret for what they could’ve been, less so.

‘ _We were never going to be anything but enemies_ ,’ Dennis thinks as the paramedics finally reach him, the sound of their approaching steps drowning out those of Shun’s as he turns his back on Dennis.

The last thing he registers as the world flickers out and fades to a peaceful black is the sound of the MC belatedly declaring Shun’s victory, her voice entirely forced cheer in the otherwise silent stadium. It’s the proof that their audience knows exactly what they’ve just borne witness to- the first battle of a long war on Synchro’s soil.


	2. Epilogue: Dennis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dennis wakes to a familiar face and the realization that making a clean cut isn’t as easy as he had hoped it would be.

When Dennis wakes, it’s to a throbbing shoulder and a familiar presence in the corner of his dark room. Even shrouded in shadows, he could never mistake the person standing watch.

“Yuuri.”

Yuuri crosses the space from the wall to the bed in a few broad strides. “You played around with them too much, Dennis.”

Dennis laughs, but it devolves quickly into soft puffs of air as the motion pulls at bruises and cuts Dennis wasn’t aware he had. “You’re one to talk.”

The soft light of the setting sun filtering through the gap in the curtains doesn’t quite reach Yuuri’s face, but even cast in shadow, Dennis knows he’s smiling, an expression falling just short of fond.

He never could hide anything from Yuuri- everything falls away from his gaze like Dennis’ carefully constructed masks were no more than flimsy cardboard cutouts. Dennis changes the subject before Yuuri has a chance to ask the question Dennis knows is coming.

“When are we leaving?” Dennis pauses. “Or when is the advance force arriving?”

“The Obelisk Force is making final preparations as we speak,” Yuuri replies. Dennis extrapolates that to mean a few days at the shortest, a week at most.

_‘Kurosaki might still get his duel with Jack,’_ Dennis thinks with amusement, and then chides himself for thinking about it at all. His time with the Lancers is over, and with it their bonds have been severed. _‘It’s like any other job. Cut the ties and move on.’_

“And when are we handling our… ambitious little pawn?” Dennis asks.

Yuuri huffs and crosses his arms, obviously displeased. “I wanted to take care of him as soon as I arrived, but I was told that would cause… problems.”

Dennis bites back the urge to chuckle at that, feeling the bruises on his ribs acutely now. Shun had done a number on him, and Dennis allowed himself a moment to hope he had done just as much damage in return.

But really, he thinks, turning his attention back to the boy in front of him, it was typical Yuuri, rash and impulsive as ever beneath that cold-burning temper of his. He wonders briefly how much havoc Yuuri had caused without Dennis there to reign him back in.

“I think the head of Security vanishing into thin air would be a little more than problematic.”

There’s a pointed silence, and Dennis can feel the irritation rolling of Yuuri in waves. It’ll pass, as it always does. Yuuri never stays mad at Dennis for long, and Dennis has grown far too used to twisting that fact to his advantage.

“Did you get attached?” Yuuri finally asks, changing the subject back away from small talk.

“Did you get attached to Rin? Or Ruri?” Dennis already knows the answer, but it’s a question that’ll prove his point.

Yuuri waves a dismissive hand. “Playthings. I catch them, I don’t deal with them afterwards.”

“I’m the same with the Lancers.”

Yuuri sends him a cold glance, perceptive and challenging. “Are you really?”

Dennis meets his gaze levelly, and Yuuri, thankfully, doesn’t pry any further. It’s not a matter Dennis wants to examine too closely. There are certainly feelings there, and Dennis has the nagging feeling, a kind of cold anxiety pooling in the pit of his stomach that he’s not going to be able to rid himself of them quite so easily this time.


	3. Epilogue: Shun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shun is left with emotions he’s not sure how to deal with. (Not that he dealt with them particularly well in the first place.)

Kissing Dennis was a mistake.

He thought it was a mistake then, knows it to be one now.

He doesn’t regret it, not in so many words, because regretting it would mean that he had some semblance of genuine feelings for Dennis in the first place. So he tells himself over and over he doesn’t regret a thing, the end of their duel long since passed. He tells himself it wouldn’t be reasonable to have feelings for someone he barely knows, even moreso for someone whose idea of flirting are outright insults and backhanded compliments. And never someone from Fusion- his stomach turns at the thought.

(Because Dennis is Fusion, had been all along. He couldn’t feel betrayed by that- not by Dennis stringing him along, not for ignoring his suspicions- if he’d never had feelings for him in the first place.)

He’s heard Ruri (or, in the more literal sense, Yuuto) as his voice of reason since before Heartland fell, more clearly since he failed to protect them- but they’re both silent now, and the only voice of agreement he hears is his own.

Shun huffs, too bitter for a laugh, too nostalgic for a sigh. Yuuto and Ruri always were romantics. He can’t deny them that, even in his imagination.

:::

Instead, echoes of Yuuto’s words haunt him in the early hours of the morning, when birds have started to sing but the sun has yet to dye the sky in pastel, when Shun is staring up at the ceiling, unable to sleep.

_“Stop. You’ll regret it, Shun.”_

And he _had_ stopped, let the duel fall short of its natural conclusion on the off chance he would regret lashing out in rage- on the off chance there would be consequence, this time, for his actions.

_‘You were wrong, Yuuto_ ,’ he thinks, _‘I regret it anyway_.’

He wonders if he’d regret it less if he had disregarded Yuuto completely, ignores the persistent twitch in his chest that tells him he would only regret it more. Reaching an impasse of what he’s willing to acknowledge and what he’s not, Shun chases his thoughts in circles, searching for an escape- an answer- but finding none.

So he pushes the emotions down instead, letting anger and blind rage take over- because it’s easy, because it’s what he’s used to, and because if he decides he’s just angry, then he doesn’t have to think about the intricacies of it all.

(But he still can’t tame the stray thoughts, the ones that rise with the rays of sun filtering through the curtains. He’d gotten his rematch. He’d gotten his rematch and _won_ -

And he’s still not satisfied.)


End file.
